Personally I doubt it is light weight. Calfee can actually take any carbon bar stem combo and combine them into a single piece. It was mentioned in the recent Road Bike Action magazine that actually featured the second Calfee bike pictured (the cross bike). In the build of that bike they considered having the battery put into the stem/bar combo but opted not to in the event of crashing the bike and being out a bunch of money. Instead they put the battery in the seat post on that bike. Personally, I agree, it is ugly and I doubt it weighs any less when you look at how much carbon had to be added to the original bar/stem.

Having recently looked into a bar/stem combo design, it looks like a lot of them weigh in right between 380 and 400g+. Not exactly a weight savings over individual bar/stem combos out there.

Well I would agree to disagree on the weight statement. It totally depends on the bar and stem that you are using and who is doing the work. I had my bar and stem done with a finished weight of 300g and it stiffened up the combo a far bit. Before the stem and bar were bonded together they weighed 296g.

If done right it should not add much weight if done right.

If you are talking manufactured bar/stem combos from many of the well known builders like Pro and such then yes they are around 400g

I am assuming that in this process that they drop the face plate bolts all together and perhaps even do some reshaping of the face plate area to a degree in an effort to generate a smoother shape and weight reduction. Just curious about a few things for someone that has done this.

1. Does it appear that they did the above or did they explain to you what the process was?2. When you had this done, did you somehow mark the angles that you wanted the bars mounted in the stem or send it to them set in that position?

I don't plan on doing this myself but those questions popped up when I was reading the article I mentioned earlier in the RBA magazine. Just out of curiosity, what did they charge you to do the work? I seriously doubt that I would pay for much of any paint and if anything ask for everything to be clear coated if anything.

Looking at it thought, and considering a previous comment, I think that stem/bar design would be great for a home office trainer bike. It looks like it could support a laptop, so, I could sit on the trainer while working.

Yes I asked a ton of questions when I had my bars and stem bonded. I am in the process of getting this done again. This time I am going with someone new and we are not only bonding the stem to the bars but we are going to modify the bars as well.

When I did this the last time, I sent the stem on the bars at the angle that I liked. This was sent to the builder so the angle was exactly like I wanted. The front of the stem is then removed, completely sanded down to just leave a small scalloped section where the bar will sit then the bonding process starts. An aluminium stem that is annodized will work alright but a carbon stem works better.

I did not have mine painted and just went with clear coat and that was good enough. Most of the time depending on what stem you are using the stem modification vs carbon for bonding is a wash. They are close to the same weight.

I just don't understand my they just don't keep the batteries and controls inside the seatpost? It works perfectly well for Di2, so why not campy? I mean, aren't the handlebars more prone to damage in a crash? It would kinda suck having to replace a whole bar and the stem plus a battery opposed to a seat-post which hardly ever gets damaged? Doesn't make sense one bit

BmanX-Thanks for some clarity on that. I really do think the process is pretty cool even though I don't plan on doing it myself. I do like the look of the Cinelli's though as they just look so smooth and they are super comfy. But, I digress, I have a steel frame and don't think I'll get the bike weight down to a point that I will be happy adding the extra weight in the bars back on it (a set of Cinelli's).

do you by chance have a quick photo of how yours look just clear coated? The only ones I have really seen was the blue one in the original post and the article in RBA.

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